Food, Minnesota Style

Comfort Food

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I have been absent from writing & baking for a bit. It isn’t because I want to be but rather because I have no Internet where I am staying. I do have my phone so hopefully this goes through. For those of you who are interested I have landed my dream job in a dream location. This has caused me to temporarily live with someone until I can get a place of my own. Thus, I was only able to bring up a small amount of items to get by and all my baking equipment and supplies stayed down south.

The person with whom I am staying has gone deer hunting as I imagine most people up here have done. After all, Deer Monday or Deer Day (the Monday following deer opener) is a school holiday. This weekend I am all alone. My guy is also off hunting so he did not come up to visit. The weather is also quite crisp and there was a slight snowfall yesterday & today. To warm myself up and be comforted by one of my favorite foods, I decided to make a pot pie with what I had on hand.

Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Chop 1 onion and 2 stalks of celery. Add to sauté pan with 2tsp olive oil. Cook over medium heat for 5min. Meanwhile, peel and chop 3 large carrots. Add carrots to pan, cover, turn heat down to low.

Bring a pot of water to boil & add 2-3 potatoes depending on the size. Boil for 30min or until cooked through. Remember to move your pan veggies around every so often. Cube or shred 8oz of cooked chicken. Once the potatoes are done, drain the water. Add milk and yogurt & mash until desired consistency.

Add a concentrated chicken stock and 1/2C water to the veggies with pepper to taste. Add the chicken & transfer to a baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes and bake for 30-40 minutes. Serves two or one person twice.

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Wild Duck Stew

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It is rare that I cook the protein or meat for meals. I have always been the vegetable or side dish girl. Sure I can cook chicken breasts, roast a whole chicken, make meatloaf, hamburgers, etc, but I never cook anything of substance. I make casseroles & I use my slow cooker a lot. I live in the mid-west, I have a long commute, enough said. Needless to say, I have also never cooked wild game. Yes I grew up in the mid-west, but until recently I never was exposed to it. As fate would have it, I ended up with a hunter.

He brought home some wild duck and I decided that I would try to cook it. I love duck, but I have never had wild duck. My hunter does not even like it very much. He says it is too gamey and bloody, which is what many people say. I decided that I would look to various recipes for wild duck and thought of a blog I follow (Food for Hunters) as surely they would have some recipes for this wild game. They had a few recipes and I decided to adapt one of them to my own needs.

Wild Duck Stew (Adapted from: Apricot Wild Duck with Swiss Chard & Goat Cheese Polenta )

  • 2 to 3 wild duck breasts (depending on the size of the duck), skinned & cubed
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/2 C of all-purpose flour
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1/4 C whiskey (or water)
  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
  • 1 C red wine (make sure it is drinkable so you can it enjoy with dinner)
  • 3 C vegetable stock
  • 1/3 C good honey
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 sweet potatoes

Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil. Salt and pepper the wild duck and coat in flour. Shake off excess flour and cook in the dutch oven until browned on all sides. Remove duck and set aside.

Reduce heat down to medium and add the carrots. Cook until slightly tender, about 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Add the whiskey, or water, and turn heat back on. Allow liquid to evaporate with slight stirring.

Add the duck back to the pan, the adobo pepper, the wine, the vegetable stock and slightly stir. Add the honey while stirring so it does not settle to the bottom of the pan. Add the dried thyme and additional pepper to taste. Allow the mixture to come to a boil for 3-5 minutes.

Place cover on and put into a preheated 350F oven and bake for 2.5 hours or until tender. Remove from oven and place on stovetop. Remove cover and reduce liquid to desired consistency (about 10-15minutes).

Approximately 45 minutes before stew is finished, start to boil water for the sweet potatoes. Boil potatoes for 30 minutes. Remove skin and mash. Serve duck stew over potatoes and enjoy wild duck.

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The 2013 MN State Fair

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One of my favorite things to do every year is go to the Minnesota State Fair. Some people never go, some go every few years, and some go multiple times a year. I feel like how many times you go to the MN State Fair says a lot about you as a person. I go once a year, every year.

The MN State Fair is a wonderful event. It is full of various types of people, attractions, and foods to eat. This is what draws me and countless others. Everybody goes for different reasons. Basically, I like to go and do the following: people watch, eat, drink, go into the agricultural building, and look at the animals. Those are my things that must get accomplished at the MN State Fair. If something else happens to squeeze itself in that mix I think of it as a bonus. Let’s start with the people watching.

There are so many people that go to this event. This year a bit over 1.7 million attended the fair from August 22-September 2, 2013 (a mear 12 days). You will see all types of people. Some people travel from the corners of the state just to go. It is always best to try and go on a weekday if possible to avoid the massive crowds.

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I also like to look at the animals. They have the same buildings every year, but for some reason I keep going back to them. There are judging contests and there is also a birthing center. I happened to see Andrew Zimmern in one of the barns this year. So cool. If you didn’t know, Minneapolis is sort of his adopted home town. I wonder what he ate at the fair…

The food and the drink is probably what most people go for and is definitely one of the main reasons I go to the fair. I always look up the new foods for the year and try to pick a few to sample. This year I tried a jalepeno and cheddar corn dog. I get a corn dog every year and thought this could be a new twist to an old classic. I was rather disappointed. It tasted almost the same as a regular corn dog unless you ate the raw sliced jalepenos with it. I also tried the deep-fried pumpkin pie. If you know me, then you know I love pumpkin so skipping this new food was not an option. I also ended up eating: Australian battered potatoes, cheese curds, pork shop on a stick, and sunflower ice cream.  Did I mention it is important to go in a group so you can split everything? That is key. A group of 2-4 is ideal and that way you only get a bite or two and you can try numerous foods. I drank a few craft beer flights as well.

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One of the last things I do is go into the agricultural building. I love looking at all of the plants, flowers, and vegetables on display. They also have the largest pumpkins! In additon, there is a honey/bee/baking area. This is where they keep the bees and have shows and tutorials. They also sell tons of honey, which you are able to sample prior to buying. This year I did not buy a local honey like I normally do. I bought a raw honey and it cost $28. Crazy, but why not?

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There are also baked goods and small crafts in this area and one of my goals in life is to end up not only having something being judged, but to win a ribbon. Maybe these posts will help me get there. Until then, I will continue loving the MN State Fair.